Additionally, the use of a worm compromises the integrity of the cork. A cork could fragment during the extraction process if the worm is not properly placed in the center of the cork or if improperly driven through the cork in an angled manner. This could require multiple attempts to extract the cork and potentially an altogether failed extraction. Even with proper use, the worm displaces a distinct portion of the cork creating the potential for particles of cork to fall into the wine contained therein creating impurities. Furthermore cork preservation is a benefit that also serves wine consumers who use the original cork to recork or “stop” the bottle and those who keep corks for display or craft purposes.
Many improvements have been made to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional corkscrew. Recently electric openers eliminate the leverage function, however these extractors still use a worm to penetrate the cork and the use of a worm inherently requires the bottle opener to be rotationally driven through the cork, thereby requiring a second hand to stabilize the bottle. Therefore, these methods only eliminate part of the problems inherent in the traditional corkscrew.
Inventors acknowledge that use of a needle to inject compressed fluid into the wine bottle to extract the cork is an up and coming solution for eliminating the worm and to avoid leveraging the bottle for cork removal. However, extractors incorporating injected compressed fluid leave significant room for improvement. For example, other extractors provide minimal guidance for centering the needle through the surface area of the cork, such that cork removal maybe be hindered and preservation of the cork maybe comprised by not maintaining a linear or central path through the cork.
Alternatively, in products where the extractor provides a guide to position the needle over the center of the surface area of the cork, the needle is rotationally driven through the cork. This rotational penetration reintroduces the need for more physical effort to penetrate the cork, the potential of compromising the cork, and the requirement to stabilize the bottle with the use of both hands.
An additional problem is that due to the length of needle required to penetrate through the length of the cork, the needle often remains exposed posing a safety hazard to users while the extractor is not engaged with the bottle. A few inadequate designs offer to address this issue by extending a component of the device to extend the length of the needle, however, in these embodiments the needle is not guarded from all directions and still remains fully exposed on more than one side while the extractor is in a resting positioning. This exposure is more than sufficient to allow access to the needle by various body parts.
Furthermore, any shield extending around the needle is limited by the height of the bottleneck. Since the needle must inherently be of a length that extends at least partially beyond the length of the cork to inject fluid into the bottle, this would result in a portion of the sharp end of the needle remaining exposed. One inadequate design introduces a shield that slides down to cover the needle. However, the jacket is free to slide back and forth. Therefore, when the extractor is inverted, the jacket will slide toward the top of the device exposing the needle while the device is in a resting state impeding the efficacy of the safety mechanism.
Further, previous extractors typically rely on the user to forcibly pull an extracted cork from the needle. This results in physical exertion and creates a potentially dangerous scenario due to the exposed needle.
Thus, a need exists for a cork exactor using injected compressed fluid which is capable of single-handed cork extraction, a mechanical means for removing an extracted cork from the needle, and additional safety features.